To the cloud

March 30, 2014 Aaron DumbrowLeave a comment

The other day I was having lunch with a partner who had recently changed companies, and was interested in working more closely with HP. He posed a simple question that really made me think. “What has you excited, what are you interested in right now.” Not a typical question I get, especially from sales people, but the answer was simple. The cloud of course.

Cloud is a big buzz word, and we love to make jokes about it, and the fact that no one can really define it since we all have different definitions. I have posted on this before, but I think this is a topic worth developing.

One of my customers is very concerned with effeciency. I know dumb statement, everyone is concerned with effeciency, unless you work for the government… but seriously. So this customer is working on a hybrid cloud model for their internal customers, but the key to the whole thing working is not the cloud, but automation.

When I got started in IT, many years ago, we used to do everything manually. When someone needed a server, we would go through our procurement process to get the hardware. When the server arrived, we would rack it, install the OS, provision the networking, add storage, and then turn it over to the application owner to install their application.

When VMware went primetime a few years back, we were thrilled. The whole process was cut down since it could be templatized, but it still required IT intervention, the process was quicker, but still not much different.

So to the point, what is automation, and what has me excited in the IT world? What if we remove the requirement for IT intervention? What if application owners could provision their own servers via a simple interface or programmatically? Imagine what the IT resources could do, what they were freed up to do more productive tasks.

Now this is a high and mighty goal, and does require more work, but this is the utopia of the cloud we are all shooting for.

What does Google Fiber mean for Portland?

February 23, 2014 Aaron DumbrowLeave a comment

In case you are living under a rock, or still using dial up, Google Fiber has announced recently they are considering deploying their Gigibit fiber offering to a number of new cities, including our very own beloved Portland, OR. https://fiber.google.com/newcities/. I thought I would give my perspective to the screaming voices on both sides, and try to put this into context.

So first of all to be clear, this is my personal opinion, not related to HP, not related to any other vendor I may talk about during my day job. Portland, from a technology vendor, is a poorly served market. With many of the technology vendors being in Silicone Valley, and many of the start-ups existing there, or in Seattle, WA, Portland is seen as too small to matter. This is a bit ironic when we consider the growing tech community in the Portland area, certainly small but not insignificant, the sought after lifestyle, and the inexpensive land and power here. I will admit, the taxes and business climate can be challenging, but those can be negotiated.

So what does this have to do with Google Fiber? Currently I pay around $70 per month for Comcast. I get around 50 Mbps for internet speed, and around 12 basic cable channels. I look at upgrading from time to time, but since I use Netflix, Hulu Plus, and a few other channels available on my Apple TVs, there is not much reason. If I could get better speeds and cut the cable out I would, but thus far Comcast has refused. As a former Comcast employee, I understand how the whole thing works, but I am not happy with the restrictiveness, and the poor services. I currently stream content on 3 TV’s as well as a half dozen miscellaneous devices. I telecommute for work, so my internet service is critical to my family and I. Google Fiber is going to be around 20 times faster than what I currently have. Plus I can pay a little more to get a better DVR than Comcast offers, and not worry about rate hikes.

So what does this mean for Portland? As much as I may not love some of the things about Portland, we are nothing if not an innovative city. We have a growing food industry, brewing and distilleries, hundreds of small businesses, and many well established ones such as Intel and Nike to name a few. Give Portland more speed, and watch what we do with it. Despite being treated by many tech vendors as a second class citizen to other larger markets, Portland continues to innovate and make a name for itself.

I know there are many options for Google, but I for one would be thrilled to have internet so fast that I will actually have to upgrade all my wireless routers.

Converged Infrastructure and You

January 7, 2014 Aaron DumbrowLeave a comment

Pausing briefly from the VMware Storage topic, I thought it might be a good time to write a bit about converged infrastructure and how it is changing the role of IT.

I, like many of you, started out supporting and designing various systems. I chose to specialize in storage and virtualization, and started down the path of becoming very focused. When I started working on storage, I was offered the position by my manager at the time. He told me it would be a great career move, people who specialized in storage at the time were making a good living, and had their choice of jobs. At that time, most companies IT departments were very silo-ed, budgets were big, and departments were always growing.

When I moved into datacenter management and then into consulting, I began to realize that specializing would no longer work. Around this time I read Nicholas Carr’s book, The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google. In thinking this through, it occurred to me that if IT is truly to become a utility as he suggests, it is not going to be possible for those of us involved in designing, building, supporting, and selling IT infrastructure to be specialized on a specific technology. As I began to talk to companies, as I began to understand the concept of good enough.

Most of us in the IT field are perfectionists, or something close. It is difficult for us to not design the perfect solution for every project or customer. The problem is that most customers don’t have the money for the perfect solution. Ideally every project should be designed by a team each with expertise in their respective areas. It should be custom built for the client, and it should use a variety of technologies custom designed for their specific needs.

The reality is that most customers need a solution that is just good enough. It doesn’t need to be the perfect fit, it doesn’t need to be fully customized. Sure there are some customers who still want that level of customization, but often don’t want to pay for it. With the growing popularity of OpenStack, IT Automation, and the desire to consume everything as a service, most business people don’t care what is under the covers. Gone are the days when IT budgets rival that of a small city, or in some cases a small country, business people don’t care how smart you are, or how much you know, they don’t care if it is a mac or a pc, they want it to work, and they want it to be fast and simple, sorry Nick Burns.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05NWJ2p4jhQ&w=420&h=315]

Bringing this back to storage and virtualization, the promise of virtualization was breaking down the barriers between the different silos within IT, it was to bring more self service and more automation. I am always amazed by the companies who go to great lengths to put the silos back in place. The growing popularity of converged infrastructure means we don’t have the luxury of specializing. O sure, there will always be opportunities in some very large companies to specialize, someone will always slip through the cracks, maintaining their old way of doing things, but for the majority of companies, for the majority of IT professionals, it is time to start diversifying.

For most of us this means expanding out of our comfort zones. I personally am spending a little time each week forcing myself to learn more about my weaker areas, networking and big data, as well as brushing up on my server, cloud, and virtualization knowledge. I will never be an expert in everything, but if I can help customers get to just good enough, at a price point they can afford, then that is worth more than the perfect solution they will never buy. This is not to say that I won’t try my best, ask for help, and engage my peers with expertise in other areas, but this does mean that I can no longer afford to consider the areas I don’t typically work in to be someone else’s responsibility. It is time for us to break down the barriers, start talking, and cross training in each others jobs, and bringing some value to the business. Converged infrastructure means we all have to learn the entire stack and be able to manage everything.

VMware Storage Part 9: Scale Out Storage AKA Software Defined Storage

January 3, 2014 Aaron DumbrowLeave a comment

As a concept Scale Out Storage is a little counter intuitive for those of us who started out in fiber channel modular and monolithic Arrays. When I started in storage we would purchase the file controllers, and then add drive shelves behind them to a predetermined maximum set by the vendor. This was scale up, traditional, and pretty predictible. Typically in this model we could get to 50% capacity or so before we started losing performance pretty quickly.

In 1999 a company called LeftHand Networks introduced us to the concept software defined storage. Of course at that point, we didn’t really know it was software defined storage, VMware was afterall still very early on in their life cycle. The concept though was simple. Keep two copies of the data at all times, and you don’t need to worry about redundancy. Since it was all based on industry standard x86 servers, the hardware was less important provided it was on the supported list. In 2008, HP realized what this product actually was and what it could do for the industry, and acquired the company, adding it to their storage portfolio.

The concept behind LeftHand, now HP StoreVirtual, and software defined storage is fairly simple. Traditionally we started out with servers without shared storage. Need more storage buy another server, or perhaps direct attach storage to the server. This is relatively inefficient, since storage is isolated on the system it is using.

Servers_Only — Traditional servers with no shared storage

Traditional shared storage made things a little better, we can share storage out from a larger pool. Storage is given as needed to servers. This is necessary also for enabling advanced features in a virtualized environment, or clustering for high availability. Again far more efficient, but also more complex to manage, and often expensive.

servers_shared_storage — Traditional shared storage environment.

In a software defined storage environment, particularly with the HP StoreVirtual VSA, we can have the simplicity and cost efficiency of the simple server environment, as well as the advantages of shared storage. As long as there are two copies of the data the data can be accessed by any node. Since this is all done in software, using a Virtual Storage Appliance is simply the next evolution in the process. The servers can be running VMware, and we can present their local storage as shared storage. To expand we can simply add drives to the existing servers. When more performance is needed another server with a Virtual Storage Appliance. Because we are presenting the storage used by the VMware host servers as shared storage, we can combine the server and storage virtualization on the same physical server.

Software Defined Storage (StoreVirtual VSA)

This model scales well, and allows for a combination of simplicity of management, advanced features, and cost efficiency. With the addition of the advanced features provided by the innovation by the HP engineering team, this solution should be considered in any production environment, and is a cost effective solution when combined with an HP Proliant server.

HP Slate 7

December 15, 2013 Aaron DumbrowAndroid, Apple, Gmail, HP Slate 500, IOS, IPad, iPhone, Mac OSLeave a comment

In keeping with my last post, I wanted to post a brief review on another new product I recently acquired thanks to my team at HP. To level-set, I love my iPad, I love my iPhone, I love apple products, and they keep multiplying around my house. That being said I have been very interested in android as a technology, and I am excited to test out the new product.

A few weeks ago I received an HP Slate 7 for winning a work related contest. From a hardware perspective it does feel a little less solid than my iPad, but honestly not bad. The display is not as crisp, movies don’t pop quite as much, and the camera leaves a bit to be desired. I have also noticed that apps lag, I attribute this partially to hardware and partially to the operating system.

From an OS perspective, I equate this lot to linux v. Mac OS. Similar concepts, but Mac OS delivers a more polished product. I like that Android is so easy to customize from an end user perspective. I love that I can pull up a terminal window and actually look at the system. I found it easy to use, but I also found it with so many options, sometimes I get sidetracked and forget what I originally started doing. They keyboard is not optimal, it does have some lag, and is not as simple as the iOS keyboard I am used to. Where I found Android really shines is multitasking. I don’t lose context when I switch between apps, they simply pick up where I left off, something my iOS devices struggle to do still, especially with iOS 7. I have also found that widgets are quite useful, and very well done.

The ecosystem is ok, albeit a bit frustrating. Some apps such as the Gmail app are far superior. Others don’t work on my version of android, and I cannot upgrade until HP releases the new code. I could of course root the device and upgrade, or sideload the apps, but one pull of the mobile operating systems is the appstore ecosystem. I have found a number of great apps, but I do prefer apple’s approach.

One final thought, with all the devices I have, I am starting to compartmentalize them. I love using my Chromebook for email and web surfing. I love my iPad for traveling, video chat, note taking, and watching netflix/hulu. I love my Slate 7 for reading and games. My iPhone is still the best camera, and good for quick responses to e-mail. At the end of the day, this is a lot of devices, but much better than carrying around my heavy workstation replacement laptop. Each has it’s place, and I hope Android can improve, but for now, I am very happy with my Apple devices.

HP Chromebook 14 LTE

November 19, 2013 Aaron DumbrowLeave a comment

Changing gears from the normal VMware storage posts, I wanted to talk about a new toy. After much deliberation I recently decided to get an HP Chromebook. It was between this, an HP Android tablet with a keyboard, and a 14 in HP Laptop, and at the end of the day it came down price, weight, and function. I finally settled on the 14 inch Chromebook with LTE, primarily because it comes with 4GB of RAM, and is very light weight, but still gives me enough power to do what I need.

So a little about my daily life, I spend a majority of my time running between meetings, taking notes on my iPad, and sending e-mails as fast as I can type. I have tried many methods for remoting into my work laptop which typically sits on my desk in my home office form my iPad, but I just can’t permanently make the switch, so I am stuck carrying a workstation replacement laptop, just incase I need something and can’t get the functionality from remote access using my iPad.

I did quite a bit of research on this, and identified two use cases for the Chromebook that set it apart and made it my choice. First of all, the 14 in screen makes it preferable for remote access to my work laptop much easier than from the smaller screen on my iPad. While I have a bluetooth keyboard for my iPad, I do not have a mouse, so I rely on the touch screen which can be challenging with legacy apps. The full keyboard and touchpad on the Chromebook in addition to the screen size finally won me over.

Since the ChromeOS is based on linux, there are methods to expose the underlying Linux OS and have a fully functional laptop. This also lead me to consider the Chromebook, and this one in particular due to it’s weight and having the most memory for the price. There are two different methods, one being ChrUbuntu, which is a separate environment, and the other Crouton, which leverages the underlying OS and sets up a chroot environment for the me to work in. I chose Crouton, because I can seamlessly switch back and forth. For my particular install I chose Terry Britton’s post, http://terrybritton.com/copy-and-paste-crouton-linux-on-chromebook-commands-959/ since it gave me the commands to install the various desktops. I am currently running LXDE, one of my personal favorites, but I will likely test out gnome, and if it works well I may switch.

I am still pretty new with the Chromebook, but I have been using the Chrome Remote Desktop app which has worked pretty well. It is a little more bandwith intensive than some, but allows me to access my work laptop from anywhere, and with the larger 14″ screen it is quite an improvement over my iPad. Having the mouse helps as well, and the keyboard response is nice.

I am not typically one for product reviews, but it is nice putting something out about some of the new things I have been using, and I am really impressed with this new laptop. As always, this is not an official HP post, but I do have to say a big well done to the product team at HP. This is something I am proud to carry, and as a geek, I can say it is fun to talk about how I had it in developer mode within 30 min of opening the box. I have also received an HP Slate 7, so I plan to write a little about that soon, mostly comparing it to my iPad, and giving some thoughts on iOS versus Android. I do love new toys, and these are certainly helping me be more productive at work.

VMware Storage Part 8: Storage Networking Revisited

November 17, 2013 Aaron DumbrowLeave a comment

Storage networking is a topic that could easily descent into deep religious debate, but I often get questions from customers and partners such as what does it matter in a virtualized environment, if we are virtualizing, why should we care what the storage network looks like. The specific question more recently was around 1GbE iSCSI versus SAS, so I want to specifically address the SMB market space, but the decision points are not dissimilar.

To start with a quick look at the SAS protocol. SNIA has a great presentation on the differences between the various storage networking protocols, http://www.snia.org/sites/default/education/tutorials/2011/spring/storman/GibbonsTerry_Shareable_Storage_With_Switched_SASv2.pdf. SAS, as it points out, is not a standard, but rather a way of conveying unique sas attributes. This is yet another way, primarily in highly dense server scenarios, to present shared storage. Essentially it is a way of sharing out direct attached storage. The main draw here is the speed over the 1GbE iSCSI. Since SAS is generally at 6Gbps, and can run over 4 channels for 24Gbps.

The main challenges for SAS focus on deployment and cost. It is often looked at as a cost saving measure over Fibre Channel, high speed and a lower cost. The challange here is that it is fairly limited in it’s scalability. It also introduces some complexity not found in iSCSI. Bringing in new switches, and zoning them is reminiscent of fibre channel, which is far more scalable.

iSCSI is not without it’s challenges of course. There is the consideration of using separate physically isolated switches from the remainder of the network, or using VLAN tagging on existing switches. 1GbE iSCSI can be saturated given enough utilization, and proper design is critical to minimize latency.

So to answer the question, what does it matter, the first response is is it supported. VMware publishes an exceptional Hardware Compatibility List, http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php, which should always be the first stop on these decisions. Secondarily to that, know your environment. While Switches SAS does have it’s place, at this point, in the SMB environment, it often makes sense to stick with what is a known quantity. Every environment already has an IP network, so leveraging that, or extending it is the simplest way of moving forward. This keeps the environment standards based, and does not require sticking with a specific solution. At the end of the day, beyond what is supported, the best design principle is to keep everything simple. While it may not matter as long as it is supported, generally speaking, then best designs are the ones which are well documented, easily repeated, and simple.

As always, there are exceptions to every rule, but I would say that using iSCSI is preferable over SAS for all those reasons, why make things more difficult than they need to be.

VMware Storage Part 7: P2000

November 2, 2013 Aaron DumbrowLeave a comment

Moving on from the more general VMware storage topics, I think it is good, since I work for HP, and since I spend much of my day designing HP storage solutions for virtual environments, to talk a little about the different models, where they fit, and why it is good to have more than one storage system to look at when designing for a VMware environment.

The HP P2000 family is now in it’s 4th Generation. This is HP’s entry level SAN, solid performance, a standard modular design, and an easily learned interface that is quite intuitive. This is an excellent platform, and not just for small businesses. The simplicity of design scales out very well for users with a middle ware layer, such as VMware to manage the multiple arrays.

The biggest draw of this device is the variance between connectivity methods. The P2000 allows for SAS connectivity, either direct connected or using a small sas switch, 1GbE iSCSI, 10GbE iSCSI, and FC. There is also a combination controller allowing for iSCSI and FC in the same system. This level of flexibility enables environments to be designed around multiple protocols, or in smaller environments to take advantage of less costly protocols.

The user interface on the P2000 is very simple and functional. Provided the user understands some basic server terminology, the P2000 can be configured, and even snapshotting and replication are easily provisioned. The concepts around this are a pay per array system. If you want snapshots, or replicaiton, you license the array rather than a per TB charge. The system can be administered through a user friendly web GUI, a robust CLI, or by using plugins in VMware vCenter.

The only real downsides to this system is the small amount of Cache, and the limited feature set. For the most demanding of applications and users, this might not be the best fit simply because they are going to want to leverage the larger amount of more expensive DRAM in higher end arrays. This can be mitigated by I/O accelerators on the server side, or by scaling out with multiple systems, so it is not a huge problem. The limited feature set, again is not always a bad thing. It is critical to understand what is needed from the array, and to plan accordingly. For example, if thin provisioning is a critical success factor, this might not give you the same level as a 3Par for example. On the otherhand, if cost is the biggest factor, and you have a constraint of using a 1GbE iSCSI network, this is a perfect fit.

Another option not often considered with the P2000 is, while it is a block only array, it can be paired with the HP Storeasy File Gateway, to provide file services with built in deduplication, and a familiar windows interface. What does this have to do with a VMware environment?!?!?! It has been my experience that many VMware environments run primarily Microsoft Windows. This means that windows file shares are quite important, and overlooked.

In a VMware environment, this is a great shared storage system. It is easy to administer, it is a good value for the price, and it does enable many of the VAAI features available with VMware. Additionally this is one of the most flexible systems on the market. When you absolutely need SAS or 1GbE iSCSI connectivity, this is always a great fit. At the end of the day, there is a reason why companies like HP have multiple storage offerings, and this one is exceptional in it’s space.

VMware Storage Part 6: Object Storage

November 2, 2013 Aaron DumbrowLeave a comment

Object storage is starting to come back around recently with services like Box.net, and Dropbox to name a few. It is really a simple concept, which can be important in a virtualized environment, especially when you look at the industry trends.

Object storage is really quite simple. You store a file, not as blocks on a file system, but rather as an “Object” on a raw device. This is not so much different than when a database is given a raw mount point and manages the storage internally. The concept is that I place an “object” in the store. I define a policy that I want it protected in R1/R10. This means when I create the object, or modify it, the system needs to keep two copies, generally on separate physical hardware, and in some cases in separate geographies.

This sounds very much like the old Lefthand, now StoreVirtual concept, where data is constantly replicated to keep multiple copies. The major difference is that the storage is accessed via an API, application programming interface. Think about drop box for a second. I place a file in my drop box folder on my laptop. It is replicated up to the “cloud”, and is available on my iPad, iPhone, web browser, etc. I didn’t tell it what do do, I just placed a file in the folder and it was suddenly available everywhere I am. I can have the same object on a Mac as a Windows PC without worrying about incompatible file systems, permissions, many of the things which are inherent to the file storage models. The great part is I don’t worry about backing up the file when I image my laptop because it comes right back when I link my freshly imaged laptop to the application which is calling the API.

What is happening here is that programatically, storage is being controlled, the object, my file, is being replicated. I don’t think about anything going on in the back end, it is simple, and it is cost effective. I am using the object storage as a repository, so there is not a performance expectation.

The performance in and of itself is an interesting discussion point. This is not something I am going to run my virtual desktop environment on, at least not just yet, but it is a great way to throw some large inexpensive drives out and present them to my end user community as a way to store data. This enables me to archive more effeciently, and share files across heterogeneous environments.

So what does this have to do with VMware? When we design a VMware environment, we often look at just the virtual infrastructure. We think about todays statefull applications, and we assume virtualization will just simplify our lives. It is critical to take a step back and think about what changes with a virtual environment. If we are simplifying and consolidating, we are also introducing new complexities, and potentially opening the door to a whole new series of challanges. Using our expensive primary VMware storage as an archive platform may not be the wisest solution, having a windows VM chugging away on our virtual environment may be much more costly.

One of my favorite sayings is, there are nine ways to skin a cat, no offense to cat lovers, and as we design VMware storage solutions, it is critical to look at the project on a larger level. As I learn more about Openstack, I will be posting more on the Software Defined Datacenter and what I believe that really means.

What Motivates You?

October 24, 2013 Aaron DumbrowLeave a comment

This is a break from my VMware Storage Series based on some recent conversations I have been having. I was recently given a reason to consider my professional career, what direction do I want to go, what is important, and what motivates me.

The conversation started a few weeks ago, and a friend, someone I had worked with in a previous life was discussing why he had joined a startup company with a bright future. He told me he was motivated by having fun. Money and the people he worked with were secondary, but having fun was really what he was all about.

I started discussing the option of joining him at the startup, with my friends, my wife, and a number of people in the industry I have a great deal of respect for. As I began to explore, a reoccurring theme kept coming up. I didn’t have a clear picture of what motivated me.

After much debating and discussing, I have come to realize that what motivates me is learning, teaching, and succeeding. I love winning, moving the ball forward as it were. I enjoy speaking in front of customers and perspective customers, and I love to get people excited about technology, and helping them see how it can help them.

I firmly believe this is a critical turning point in my career. I have chosen to stay where I am, I like my job, and my manager has assembled a team that is second to no one. I am doing my best to be a good contributing member, and I feel like there is plenty of room for growth as long as I put in the effort. It is the right decision for me at this point in my life.

So now that I have gone on this little journey of discovery, I would challange you, pause for a moment, take a look at your life, and ask yourself. “What motivates me?”

Aaron Dumbrow Random Thoughts

Making your home smarter

Author: Aaron Dumbrow